Digital holography is becoming a growth market as retailers and increasing numbers of sectors seek to provide a unique user-experience and ‘HumaGrams’ raise the profile of holographics.

Technavio forecasts the global digital holography market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of almost 39% between 2016 and 2020.

Sunil Kumar Singh, Technavio lead analyst for human machine interface research, says the market is growing gradually as the technology is still new and has ‘endless potential’.

“The unique user-experience created through digital holography is the prime factor for the adoption of this technology in several industries such as healthcare, automotive, education and retail,” Singh says.

Technavio says digital holographies reach has increased over the past few years, with the technology now in use in the healthcare, advertising, financial and education sectors.

“It is expected to be featured in several other sectors, such as automotive, gaming, retail and aerospace and defence during the forecast period,” the research firm says.

It highlights Lamborghini’s use of a 3D hologram to promote its limited production car, the Centenario, to prospective buyers.

Holographic displays are also being used in toy shows to gain consumers’ attention, and Technavio says the growing number of end-users from many sectors will increase the penetration of the technology and improve growth prospects out to 2020.

Retail is one sector long regarded as holding plenty of potential for holograms, enabling retailers to quickly gain consumer attention.

“The use of mannequins in stores for advertising is slowly becoming obsolete, and retailers are looking to adopt digital holographic technology to attract and retain customers,” Technavio says.

“For instance, a talking human hologram can greet the customers at the entrance of a store, guide them thorugh the catalog and suggest offers.

“This is likely to result in increased sales for stores.”

Technavios says the introduction of HumaGrams – holographic images of people which can communicate with others – has increased the potential of digital holographic technology in digital signage, advertising, presentations and promotions.

“Digital holograms are expensive for large-scale applications,” Singh says. “However, the scenario will change with advances in digital holography technology; holograms will become a cost-effective solution.”

Technavio says while many vendors have invested ‘considerable amounts of time and money’ in R&D to bring digital holographic technology to the mainstream, the technology is still in its early stages and yet to be fully commercialised.

“Vendors in the market are focusing on enhancing the technical aspects of this technology before commercialising it on a large scale.